Sunday, March 25, 2012

Philo Ikonya reads at Rådhuset to mark World Poetry Day and her work as a writer in Refuge in Oslo

Lioness at Samburu adopts an Oryx

World Poetry Day (UNESCO) 1st March 2012. I was invited to read poems at the City Hall in Oslo, Rådhuset. This is a great honor and the speeches about my work were unexpected and wonderful. The venue was Munchrommet. Edvard Munch is famous for great art and I had the honour to get so many photographs done in a great hall. See them in the link just below. My theme was motherlands and that included Kenya, Norway and the whole world. For everywhere someone calls home is a motherland.

I read a poem about a lioness called Namunyak, the lucky one. She lives (d) in Samburu Park in Kenya. She adopted oryxes and gazelles (babies) six times and she fed them and protected them from being eaten by predators. Ordinarily these animals are eaten by lions. She inspired me with regard to tribalism and other forms of discrimination and non-acceptance of the other. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1746828.stm